Deon
Deon - Blood Rider Enclave World It had really been a quite clever trap. It might have done Kani BloodShard some real damage had she not been extremely cautious after her last encounter with a nightlacer and spotted the triplines. Thus, she had only been PARTIALLY buried by the net of vines and rubble that had been dropped on her. However, she’d been able to draw her blades, and with them quickly begin to slice through the entangling vines and trapping rocks. '' ''As she ripped free of the vine trap, she had caught a glimpse of her ambushers when they came up and caught sight of what they thought they’d trapped, instead slicing through the entanglement and impromptu burial. Once they had, though, they’d freaked and panicked. Three female forms, two of them clad in rags, bearing scavenged weaponry,visible in the wane half-light cast by the glowing lumacoronium veins in the tunnel walls. The third was nude, running all fours, hind legs warped and reshaped to better accommodate the four legged stance, a stinger-equipped tail that was NOT original equipment sprouting from the base of the spine. That one had shown every desire to leap upon her and try to rip out her throat, but had been hauled away, growling inarticulately, by a tight grip on the collar around its neck and hair by one of the other two. Of those two, one had had long hair, and large eyes that glowed with the light reflected from the electrical bolts she had been throwing from slender arms bulged by tendrils under the skin. The other one had been shorter and smaller, short-haired, cradling an oversized Kittani-made rifle in her arms and frantically yelling at the other two that they had to move, move, move! Kani might have caught them as they scampered down a side tunnel, but the electrone bolts that the tall one had blindly thrown in her direction had set off another mini-avalanche of loosened rock that she had to avoid. After that, she had to consider proceeding cautiously; the escapees might have had time to set up a fall-back position to lead Kani into another trap. Pinned at their mercy, between the three of them, two with obvious energy weapons, the bioborgs, for that was what they obviously were, could take apart even a Berserker like BloodShard. '' ''Kani instead turned to clearing the tunnel she’d come down, securing her way back. Satisfied that she’s cleared the worst of the obstacles out of the passageway, she sent an interrogative signal back, then waited anxiously for a few moments, wondering if she’d have to deploy one of the small spider-relays the tunnel hunters carried with them. '' ''#”Hoi, sister! What worries you? A matter of urgency?”# Kani recognized the -comis- of Scout-Lancer Madria True-Edge. “Hoi! Your pardon, sister, I was just checking in. I thought ‘d just mention I just had an encounter with some locals. Three bioborgs. All three apparently healthy, and armed.” Kani sent along a burst-compression file of her memories of the three. '' ''#“Interesting....I don’t believe we’ve made the acquaintance of this particular little group yet. We’ll have to check against the records, see if they’ve been involved in any previous actions.”# “They don’t appear to be too hostile, and they may have been expecting somebody else. With the exception of the one, they turned and fled as soon as they realized who I was.” #”Not one of the cutthroat gangs or Splugorth pets, then, unless they’ve already encountered us before and you ran across the survivors. Have any idea where they went?”# “I lost them down an uncharted tunnel in the direction of Grid Fourteen-Eight. I didn’t pursue until I could report in.” #”Wise move, Berserker. Chieftain-of-Scouts BloodClarion believes the tunnels there might link with the Nocturne River cavern. I’ll tell the scouts there to be on the watch for your three. You hold to your patrol and pursue only if you can corner them on the known map. In the meantime have you heard that Aerlin SoulSplitter got two Altarans in close combat?”# “No, I didn’t! Damn, some girls have all the luck!” In the dark tunnels of Deon, the infamous Blind Warrior Women had really come into their own as guerillas, and taking down two of them was no small glory in the cleanup of the remaining Minions on what had become a Blood Rider world. History Deon is a world in conflict, both with itself and offworlders. A harsh world that was primarily settled as a gulag, it has become a hell of both natural and unnatural causes. Deon was originally surveyed and tentatively settled by asteroid miners from the Human Alliance about two centuries ago, but being so far on the periphery of the civilized worlds, the mining colony proved too difficult to maintain, for diminishing returns on the investment, and the effort ended in failure. When more pressing matters called for the HA’s attention closer to home, Deon was turned over by the HA government to one of the splinter quasi-corporate governments operating in the periphery, the Delian Consortium, who found a new purpose for the planetary settlement; a maximum security prison and penal colony subsequently called the Deon MaxLoc. On Deon, violent and repeat offenders with little chance of rehabilitation could be shipped off and forgotten, out of sight and out of mind. Almost from the beginning, though, the Deon penal colony was corrupt; the Delian Consortium’s administration was making a profit collecting ‘disposal fees’ from various regional governments who wanted to permanently remove dangerous criminals from their societies. ‘Dangerous’, however, could also mean relatively minor offences, or political dissidence, depending on the local legal definition. The Deon Penal Administration didn’t care WHAT the particulars were, as long as the appropriate palms were greased, and so didn’t look at the criminal histories except in the most desultory way. As a result, a great many misdemeanor criminals, political prisoners, and wrongly-convicted innocents were sentenced to rot at the Deon colony for the crimes of merely annoying the wrong people in power. The corruption didn’t end there, however. As if exile to the inhospitable world wasn’t suffering enough, the actual prison was run for the amusement and profit of the guards, who both ruthlessly exploited the prisoners and looked the other way when the more violent criminals inflicted their own pecking order. Pit fights, extortion, slavery, and abuse were rife in the prison. Arguably the fatality rate among prisoners was greater from murder than from the harsh working conditions in Deon’s mines, at least until the mines broke into the vicious ecosystem deep beneath Deon’s crust. . Among the lower social strata of the sector, Deon acquired a notorious reputation for being the ‘end’ for the unlucky, a Devil’s Island penitentiary that nobody escaped. This was the way things operated for over a hundred years; the parent Consortium taking little or no notice of the rumors of how Deon really operated, figuring in fact that the negative publicity actually HELPED the cause of law and order if nobody wanted to be sent to Deon. As Deon lay in a supposedly pacified sector of the Scramble, the overstretched TVIA never got around to doing an inspection of the facility, and never managed to catch on to the corruption going on there. The end of the Deon MaxLoc finally came in the last ten years of its operation, when the twisted code of operations became so engrained at Deon that nobody batted an eye when the corruption reached Caligulan levels of abuse. The last warden was so corrupt that she even had dealings with the Splugorth, selecting candidates from among the prisoners for ‘special work details’ and ‘rehabilitation release parole’, but in reality selling them to Splugorth slave traders who would drop int the system to exchange luxury trinkets for warm bodies. The warden’s dealings with the Splugorth would ultimately backfire, when the Splugorth discovered something (or somethingS) about Deon that made them want to cut out the middleman. One day they simply flew in and seized the penal colony, killing and enslaving most of the prison administrators, and taking over the colony themselves. As the penal colony was not armed against serious outside threats, and the Splugorth had been keyed in as ‘friendlies’ by the warden, the small Splugorth attack fleet breezed right in with little opposition. The Splugorth enslaved EVERYBODY, and those who were not worked to death, were used as personal playthings and the subjects of Biowizardry experimentation. Nor was the Splugorth’s accomplice spared; for her greed and casual cruelty to her own species, the warden was reverted to the mental state of an aggressive predator, and biomodified into the equivalent of a bloodhound, to serve the new Splugorth Minion commandant of Deon. Rather than seek to liberate Deon from the Splugorth, the Delian Consortium simply wrote off the colony, washing their hands of it and leaving its inhabitants to suffer under the Splugorth occupiers. Effectively considered to be behind enemy lines, no effort was made to retake Deon. Being sufficiently off the beat and track for travel in the sector, the planet was effectively ignored for the time being by the other settled worlds in the sector, though they did step up their defensive patrols in those areas of their space on the approaches from the Desokos system. A month later, though, the Shemarrian Star Nation struck, attacking Deon with their OWN small fleet. The attack was swift, and the Blood Riders who made up the attack force ruthless and efficient, destroying the Splugorth space presence before driving down into the mineshafts and pitheads of the colony to take on the Minions in close combat. The Shemarrians took over the main complex, freed those slaves still being held there, and settled in themselves as Deon’s new overlords while they hunted the remaining Minions. A number of Minions who had been out exploring the vast underground tunnel network and harvesting its lifeforms, managed to escape being caught in the initial strike, and proceeded to hide out in the caverns, where they frequently preyed(and were preyed upon in turn) by groups of escaped fugitive prisoners(many driven mad by exposure to Deonese diseases), escaped bioborgs and BioWizardry experiments, and a handful of better-organized and armed former prison guards also hiding out in the tunnels. The primary settlement continues to be the main (former) prison complex, which sits in a large cavern some eight hundred feet below the surface, and linked to a surface spaceport annex by a long tall shaft. Below the main prisoner housing, forced labor mines sprawl away, down and sideways. Several secondary facilities are located within a fifty mile radius; these secondary stations serve as specialized prison facilities(such as solitary confinement/torture) and work camps(some of which have secondary shafts to the surface, though no spaceport access). About a thousand feet under the surface is where the penal miners discovered the life-tunnels, a massive network of interlinked tunnels, underground rivers, and caves that are home to Deon’s subterrranean lifeforms. The Bloord riders have taken over the main complexes, cleaning them out of both the original prison guard barracks and Splugorth equipment, and settled in to do a little mining, a little hunting, and a lot of Minion stalking. The Blood Riders have made some effort to separate the hardcore convicts from the wrongly imprisoned and genuinely repentant/rehabilitatable (a task made all the more difficult by missing or suspect records, necessary actions to survive the hothouse environment of the prison, and trauma from the Splugorth occupation) and ship the latter to refuges offworld, but it’s slow and painstaking work for the warrior Tribe, who are much better at fighting. The vast underground tunnel systems are rife with surviving convicts and guards, many of whom have formed crude, tribal societies, escaped slaves and Splugorth biowizardry experiments, Minions who escaped the Blood Rider attack, and predators of Deon’s barely understood ecosystem, all of whom are dangerous and prone to attack anyone or anything they come across. A dozen little brush wars have broken out in the caverns outside the Shemarrian perimeter, the gangs and factions fighting for territory, revenge, or food. For their part, the Blood Riders consider Deon to be a wonderful exercise; the tunnels promote the sort of up-close personal combat the Blood Rider Berserkers LOVE, and the various factions provide a variety of combat possibilities. Visiting Blood Rider warriors frequently go hunting the tunnels on patrol, obstensively to find and rescue refugees but also looking for fights, and more often than not, finding them. Furthermore, the Splugorth have made several efforts to retake Deon, or at least rescue their personnel stranded there. That tells the Blood Riders that their presence is denying the Splugorth something they WANT, and affording the SSN the opportunity to sting the hated Splugorth again and again. Several times the Blood Riders have set ambushes for the incoming Splugorth, in order to bleed their forces, ambushing them either in space or on the surface. As far as the Delian Consortium and the rest of the Three Galaxies know, Deon is still occupied by the Splugorth. That means that it’s possible that at some point the CCW may show an interest, or one of the nations that was paying the DC blood-gilt may suffer pangs of conscience, and send a taskforce(or mercenaries) to investigate and maybe attempt to drive the Splugorth out. Whether the Blood Riders wil contest any such effort to liberate Deon, or abandon it to the CCW, is debatable. The Shemarrians, though they enjoy using the planet as a hunting ground, aren’t all that invested in Deon as yet, and the Blood Riders have only continued mining operations in rather desultory fashion. Description Geology Deon is quite flat with cracked baked deserts covering 80% of the surface with a few small ridges and mountain chains breaking the monotony. Deon has an extensive tunnel and cavern network, created by many natural lifeforms living underground. The surface is bone dry, leading to rapid dehydration for those on the surface without protection. All of the water on Deon is locked below the surface in deep aquifers and lakes. Interesting Mineral Concentrations Lumacoronium A mica-like ore with phosporescent properties, lumacoronium is used to make luminescent signs, paints, and electrical components. The underground of Deon is rich with the material, which illuminates many of the tunnels and caverns. Deonsite This is a recently discovered form of shale-like material found in Deon’s tunnel systems, and possibly one of the reasons the Splugorth invaded. It is a layered, black-green rock that fractures easily. Its dust is toxic if inhaled or ingested, but if properly prepared, the ore yields a number of chemicals useful in pharmacology and biotech, promoting cell growth and regeneration (or promoting the formation of disfiguring tumor-like growths in its raw form). Climate On the surface, Deon has a thin, hazy and slightly corrosive atmosphere that cannot be safely breathed for more than 5 minutes without a breathing apparatus. In the tunnels the atmosphere is oxygen-nitrogen mix, dense but tainted. The air can be breathed but only for a few days (48 hours + P.E. in hours) before breathing becomes laboured and eventually leads to rapid fatigue, dizziness and respiratory distress. Filter masks help extend the breathe-ability of the air. Bioborgs and other bio-enhanced characters suffer NO problems from the tainted air. Temperatures on the surface are hot, ranging from 125 to 440 degrees F. In the tunnels a much cooler -30 F to 45 F is the norm.This means many of the native lifeforms have layers of fat or blubber to keep them warm. Biosphere Deon has a surprisingly deep and diverse biosphere. One of the scary discoveries on Deon was a previously unsuspected biome deep underground. Though hinted at by the initial mining colony, the evidence of the ecosystem didn't really come to light until under the penal colony's administration, who downplayed reports to avoid garnering any official attention that might shut down their own questionable efforts. Frankly, though, the corrupt prison wardens were grateful for the discovery, as violent disappearances and the ensuing prisoner tales of alien predators stalking the tunnels, horrible alien diseases, and strange deadly lifeforms helped keep the more timid prisoners from trying to escape (and conveniently eliminating those who did try). Xenobiologists would be beside themselves studying the Deonese subterranean ecosystem, but so far only the Splugorth, who sent in several teams of xenobio harvesters to study and catalog the biome, have done any sort of serious scientific study. Among the native lifeforms already identified are several species of tunnel-dwelling predators, a carnivorous vine network, several species of fungi with poisonous spores, and a mite-like parasite that induces its victims into hypertensive aggression (it is suspected that it was these lifeforms that the Splugorth were most interested in as possible Bio-Wizardry components). Most of these lifeforms, flora and fauna, are not edible by humans, but a few are at least digestible. Inhabitants Deon is currently home to 12,000 Shemarrians, 17,000 former inmates, and an estimated 15,000 former inmates/guards who have gone ‘feral’ (out of an original prison complex population of some 50,000), living in the underground. The former inmate/guard population is wholly Human in species composition, though roughly 30% of the surviving inmates have been subjected to some sort of Splugorth experimentation/augmentation. There’s also an estimated 2,000-5,000 Minions who escaped the initial invasion and who are also hiding in the tunnel systems. MacLoc Colony Colony: Penal Colony Sponsoring Organization: Corporate, Delian Consortium Colony Size: Roughly city-sized, with provision for 60,000 residents/inmates General Alignment: As a prison, the general alignment was Diabolical, with half of the population preying on the other half. Under the Shemarrians, alignment has crept up to Aberrant, as the trauma of having been conquered by the Splugorth has given way to Shemarrian-imposed law and order. Trade Policy: Not applicable. Environment Around Colony: Underground Notable/Special Natural Resources: Mining: Lumacoronium---A low-tech high-labor operation for low returns. The original mines used convict labor and little in the way of advanced equipment. It has been continued by the Shemarrians using automation brought in from elsewhere. Buildings/Facilities (of Note): Barracks The original prisoner holding cells and barracks remain, but the drop in prisoner population means that fewer of them are occupied anymore, and the survivors dispersed to the roomier cells and facilities. Fortifications The original automated prison cells and fortified guard facilities were retained under the Splugorth, and reinforced in some cases, but the Shemarrians have either removed most of the original equipment, or permanently fused barriers in place. The Blood Riders have themselves taken over several tunnels and facilities near the core and constructed their own fortifications (and an unknown number of surface weapons installations). Ore Processors The ore processing stations are set aside from the main prison complex and are heavily automated and armored to prevent tampering. They are largely unchanged from the day the Delian Consortium installed them, but the recent years of neglect have started to tell on them, and major breakdowns will likely start occurring with the next five years of operation. It remains to be seen if the Shemarrians will replace them in that event. Hydroponics Farms Several tunnels have been converted into hydroponics farms to help purify the air and water and reduce the need to ship in supplies. The farms were also used to dispose of the residue from the recyclers. Since the Splugorth occupation and the Shemarrian liberation, these farms have been targeted by fugitive raiders seeking to steal food. Recycler Tanks These were used to reclaim, filter, and sanitize wastes, including dead bodies. The Splugorth improved these for their own people, and the Shemarrians have retained them. Medical Facility Under the administration of the Delian Consortium, the Deon MaxLoc had a small hospital, though this was only used by the prison guards, and those prisoners in the favor of the corrupt administration (in fact, some of the more corrupt and vicious guards and inmates used the facilities to torture other prisoners). Under the Splugorth, those same facilities were used to store prisoners for experimentation at a new Biowizardry lab adjacent to the hospital. Under the Blood Riders, a new hospital has been set up to treat the surviving inmates and work to relieve the suffering of the victims of Splugorth experimentation. though that’s taken some persuading that the patients are actually going to be HEALED, and not subjected to another invading alien species’ diabolical experiments. Primary Energy Source Fusion Nuclear Reactors. The original reactors have been the targets of several attempts by diehard inmates and Splugorth resisters to sabotage them, but the Shemarrians have installed several backups hidden away. Primary Source of Transportation Under the original Delian Consortium, only the most basic transport was installed in the prison: rail cars for moving about the mines, and hover platforms for the guards. The Splugorth brought in several levitation platforms and hovercraft for exploring the tunnels and caverns, and a few of these have survived to be incorporated into the motorpool by the Shemarrians. Security/Fight Force Small Army: the Blood Riders are THE de facto military force on the planet. Other Information Technology Roughly equivalent to Spacefaring, although only the Shemarrians have any star travel capabilities on Deon. Economy Some small exports of metals and minerals. Wealth Can be considered to be Impoverished. Before the double-invasion Deon’s industry was misery, the mining operations were low-return make-work, and the main income generator was what the corrupt prison guards could squeeze/extort/exploit out of the inmates. The main income/economy now is what the Blood Riders are pumping in. Government Shemarrian Tribal; the Blood Riders are currently the biggest guns on the planet, and they are large and in charge. Law Level Inside the Blood Rider enclave absolute authority rules, but out beyond the Shemarrian patrols, it’s effectively anarchy. Popularity The remaining prisoners/ex-slaves mainly see the Shemarrians as saviors and liberators, though some of the hardcore inmates see the Blood Riders as another bunch of would-be authoritarians who will ultimately clamp them all back in irons for their amusement. The ferals see the Shemarrians as another group of invaders, while the fugitive Minions abhor the newcomers. Stability Uncertain; the Blood Riders themselves retain stability in their own ranks, but the ex-prison population is another matter; the hardcore convicts want to either go free to leave the planet, or, in the meantime, re-establish a pecking order with themselves on top, and the political prisoners and originally wrongly convicted want eventual repatriation and revenge on ALL their abusers. The ex-prison guards want to escape, period. Outside Threats Splugorth raiders, probing at the defenses of the Shemarrians, are the primary outside threat. The Shemarrians have booby trapped and mined all the KNOWN surface pitheads and cavern entrances that the Splugorth have tried to use to recover their minions, and the Splugorth appear as yet to be unable to magically teleport or D-Gate into or out of Deon’s tunnels. The underground colony itself is subject to raids by feral inmate tribes, insane bioborgs, and fugitive Splugorth diehards, seeking either to steal food and resources, or disrupt the SSN’s operations on-planet. Since breaking into the lower tunnels, the settlement has also been seeing a growing number of attacks by the local fauna who are discovering the new food source from above. Dangers of Deon RagnorSpores Toxic fungus spores that cause temporary and violent dementia if inhaled. Victims will become paranoid and aggressive, prone to lash out at anything they see as a threat. PhazeoSpores These are the toxic spores of a native Deonese fungus. If inhaled, they cause a painful condition similar to encephalitis, attacking the brain and nervous tissues. Though relatively easy to survive, the side effects can be long term, including relapses of short term memory loss and permanent amnesia. It is believed that it is mass-phazeospore poisonings that have led to the formation of many of the ‘feral’ gangs of escaped prisoners eking out a tribal existence in the tunnel system. Deonese Berserktic (aka ‘Juicer Bugs’) This is a fingernail-sized parasite that seeks to burrow into a host near the base of the neck, where it can feed on brain fluids. It induces massive muscle growth and roid-rage in victims, causing them to fight until death. Once the victim's dead, the berserktic and a dozen offspring leave the body and seek fresh hosts. The berserktic normally feeds on other Deonese predators but it has found a new favorite crop of prey in the humans and humanoid Minions now invading the tunnels of Deon, as humans and those most like them are even more susceptible to the ‘tic’s effects. Survivors tell horror stories of entire work crews being transformed overnight into raging muscle-monsters and slaughtering each other. The Berserktic has begun appearing as a Parasite in the Biowizardry marketplaces of Desslyth, though it is unknown if the Splugorth are able to successfully breed the creatures, or are selling off a stock of them acquired before the Blood Riders took over Deon. Makatos The Makatos is a large tunnel predator native to Deon. It resembles an overgrown bull terrier in shape; four -legged, with a large blunt head that ends in a four-part massive betoothed jaw. It travels the tunnels of Deon in packs, hunting down and devouring other animals. Of late, it has learned to hunt the newcomers; escaped prisoners and fugitive Minions alike. The name ‘Makatos’ comes from the native tongue of one of the few survivors of an attack by these predators; ‘makatos’ meaning ‘quiet death’. Deonese Nightlacer The Nightlacer is a larger predator resembling a large, sprawling, four-legged wingless bat, with a bulbous head dotted with a dozen simple eyes, a prehensile tail, and four long tentacles coming out of its chest/abdomen. The creature typically sprawls across a cave or tunnel, lifting itself on its long legs to the ceiling, so its tentacles can trap anything blundering by under it. Deonese Acid-Slug These giant whale-like omnivores slowly undulate through the darkness, consuming living matter in the tunnels, or chewing new tunnels through the bedrock, following veins of Deonsite. The tunnels they chew through the rock are often used by other animals to move between caverns. The Slugs themselves are idiot monsters who run entirely on simple instinct, and show no stalking or hunting abilities, eating whatever they run into in the underground. Category:Blood Rider Category:Advanced Cultural Notes Category:Planet Category:Enclave Category:Alien Category:Solar System Category:Desokos Category:Deon Category:Dangers